How long can you survive the post-apocalyptic wastelands of NEO Scavenger? In the near-future, supernatural activity and human warfare have fragmented mankind into pockets of civilization struggling to survive in wild and dangerous lands. You awaken alone in an abandoned facility with no food nor water, and only a hospital gown and some mysterious items as clues to your identity. NEO Scavenger is a game where you must survive in the wasteland long enough to figure out who you are. Each turn you must decide where to go, how to scavenge for supplies, and how to deal with anything and anyone you encounter. And with each passing minute, the pit in your stomach grows, your dehydration worsens, your muscles tire, and your body temperature drops in the cold autumn air. Choose your starting abilities carefully, because they and your wit are the only tools you have in the apocalypse!

I've just uploaded new beta (0.961b) and demo (0.961d) builds, which include the option to play in larger resolutions and font sizes. The builds also address some crafting issues, as well as other bugs identified recently.

I've just uploaded new beta (0.961b) and demo (0.961d) builds, which include the option to play in larger resolutions and font sizes. The builds also address some crafting issues, as well as other bugs identified recently.

New title screen with graphics options!

Beta and Demo Updates

Updates included in both 0.961b and 0.961d:

Added new options to title screen for 800x450, 1360x768, 1600x900, and 2400x1350.

As you can see, quite a lot has changed. The majority of the work involved opening up new screen sizes for users with bigger monitors. The game now fits a widescreen format, and will letterbox any additional space instead of stretching. This helps to maintain the pixel aspect ratio, and produce less jagged fonts and images.

However, in addition to the larger screen sizes and fonts, there are also some graphics options for filtering, fullscreen, and stretching, in case you want to further customize each mode.

The game will try to remember your settings from session to session, using cookies.

New crafting UI. Now with less blindness when using fire!

Another big change is the crafting UI. The crafting controls are now on their own page, with everything in your inventory already emptied out and sorted by size. It has multiple pages in case they don't all fit, and you can switch tabs to view your list of known recipes.

What's more, everything on this page is a copy of the original, so no more blindness when using a campfire to craft at night! Items created on this page are automatically added to the ground on the items screen. If the ground cannot fit the item, it will alternately try to fit it into the camp slot.

New conditions screen, with easy backpack access!

I also found a way to combine some elements of the items screen with the conditions screen, as many players requested. Hopefully, this makes it easier to apply bandages from the handheld and backpack slots!

Beta Updates

The following updates apply to the beta only:

Fixed a bug that prevented savegames from storing current encounter page.

Fixed bug preventing night vision augmentation from being used in scavenging.

Fixed pricing issues in diner.

Fixed bug that prevented leaving the augmentation clinic.

Added scrolling to DMC map, with overlay instruction info.

Changed main menu to only allow quit when in skill selection, due to crash bug when saving.

Most of these were fixes to the new DMC encounters introduced in the last build. However, the fix to save games should be a big improvement, since it should make saving during an encounter safe now.

Note About Linux

Just a heads-up to Linux users: fullscreen mode doesn't seem to work with keyboard input. This appears to be a limitation of the Flash player's current version on Linux (11.2). Keyboard support was added to Windows/Mac players in 11.3 and higher, so this won't be fixable until a new version of the player is available for Linux.

In the meantime, you can still maximize the window to get nearly fullscreen, and the keyboard will still work. I apologize for the fluke, as I didn't notice it until testing the Linux build this afternoon.

As always, let me know what you think of the changes, or if you come across any issues. I usually don't work on weekends, but I'll keep an eye out tomorrow in case I've totally pooched the build and you need a major fix done.

I'll have to see what my options are. A total rewrite of NEO Scavenger in another platform is a pretty big undertaking, so that's not a decision I would make lightly. But there might not be any other way.